Brine?Yep. Meat Glue?Yep. Sous Vide?Yep. Torch? Yep. Awesome? Oh @#!*% yes.TFJ killed it tonight

The Cen-Tex Smoker · December 2012

abort mission until I get pics right. Damnit.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · December 2012

nm

The Cen-Tex Smoker · December 2012

I'll fix the pics ASAP. Damnit. They are good too.

nolaegghead · December 2012

whoop whoop crank that amp to 11!

The Cen-Tex Smoker · December 2012

NM

Damnit. can't get images on my laptop to work..

stay tuned

The Cen-Tex Smoker · December 2012

X

cazzy · December 2012

Cen, from the laptop, insert "Direct" link into the photo tool's address bar. From your iPhone, paste the HTML code into the body of your message.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · December 2012

Try again: OK- So I posted a few weeks ago about some yard bird that I had in LA at Drago Centro. It was amazing but I sniffed out how they did it right on the spot and vowed to try it. TFJ was so fired up about it that she took the lead and WOW am I glad she did! Here's the deets: I brined 3 bone in, skin on chicken breasts for 3 hrs in the most basic brine (water, salt, sugar). Once out of the brine, we boned and skinned the 3 breasts. We then scraped all the skin until almost translucent and set aside. Then we meat glued 2 of those boneless skinless breast together and glued the skin back on those 2 breasts (took all 3 skins) and formed it into a sphere (details below with the pics). We then cooked Sous Vide for 6 hours. Once out of the SV, we seared with a torch to brown the skin. It was served with TFJ's garlic mashers, roasted Brussels sprouts and finished with TFJ's "All Day Marsala Demi Glace". This project answered a ton of questions for me about: Meat Glue (it's awesome) Sous Vide (absolutely amazing when used in the right spots) Chicken skin (if you want perfect bite through skin, scrape it and meat glue back on the bird....and yes, it's worth it for special meals). This was so fun and it was every bit as good as the food I had at one of the best restaurants in LA. Tons of work, but it's so cool to know that we can make food on par with the big boys from time to time. Good food (and bourbon) night at Casa CenTex. Scraped skin:

Here is all the "snot" once you scrape. I'm telling you, once you get all this stuff off the back of the skin, it's like a little "chip" once crisped up. Lot of work but I now totally get why comp BBQ teams take the time to do it. I know it's gross but I posted to show why it helps texture to scrape for that "one bite, no pull" chicken skin.

Boned, skinned breasts sitting skin side DOWN:

Meat glue added:

Breasts placed together inverted so the fat part of one is bonded to the skinny part of the other. This creates a very uniform piece of yard bird. This helps it all to cook perfectly uniform so you have no waste from dried out tail pieces etc. There is also meat glue on the outside of this piece for the next step: to reattach the skin

Now TFJ wrapped these 2 breast pieces with the scraped skin from all 3 breasts so the skin wrapped all the way around both glued breasts.

She then wrapped them in plastic wrap to form a sphere and allow the meat glue to do it's thang (bond the breasts and bond the skin to the breasts).

We then put in the freezer until firm so we could vac seal for the SV without deforming the sphere. You can drop the plastic wrap sphere directly in the SV but we had store bought wrap and it was not wide enough to do it one piece so we didn't trust it. Commercial wrap is much wider and you could do it that way if you decide you want to get weird with food like we do :)

Once out of the SV we (she) seared with a torch to crisp up the skin

And plated with Mashers, "All Day Marsala Demi", and Brussels Sprouts:

Moral of the story: Do not mess with TFJ when she gets mad at something. I brined the bird and then was told to sit my @#!*% down and watch the magic happen. I did and was rewarded with one of the best home cooked meals I've ever had. Centex Out

The Cen-Tex Smoker · December 2012

cazzy said:

Cen, from the laptop, insert "Direct" link into the photo tool's address bar. From your iPhone, paste the HTML code into the body of your message.

got it now.....geez. I'll figure it our one day

nolaegghead · December 2012

Awesome. I remember you talking about duplicating this earlier. I see a lot of potential crazy gor-met sh*t with these techniques - like glue chicken to pork tenderloin so it forms a yin-yang when you slice it. Again - impressive. whoop! whoop! (siren blast!)

cazzy · December 2012

Amazing job! What to try this when I grow up!

U_tarded · December 2012

impressive! love me some marsala based sauces. i'm sure this is outstanding

The Cen-Tex Smoker · December 2012

Here is the original in LA

nolaegghead · December 2012

That's the pic I remember.

khristyjeff · December 2012

Wow. That looks fantastic! Yours looks better than the restaurant's. Gotta have TFKh look at this. I told her about meat glue (from your previous thread) and she was simultaneously grossed out and intrigued. Thanks for experimenting and sharing with us.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · December 2012

khristyjeff said:

Wow. That looks fantastic! Yours looks better than the restaurant's. Gotta have TFKh look at this. I told her about meat glue (from your previous thread) and she was simultaneously grossed out and intrigued. Thanks for experimenting and sharing with us.

Thanks. Nothing gross about meat glue. It's running through your veins and it's in every plant you consume also. If you have ever eaten deli meat, California rolls, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, or countless other foods you have eaten, you've had plenty of meat glue. It is 100% natural, tasteless, odorless, and fun to play with. Trust me, we all eat transglutaminase (meat glue) most every day of our lives.

MaskedMarvel · December 2012

Holy. Crap.

lousubcap · December 2012

@C-T-Hell of a cooking adventure-congrats on being one with TFJ in the kitchen until "recognizing the right asnwer when told"...Looks great!

dlk7 · December 2012

Wow - Inspiration in so many ways!!! Thanks for the step by step.

khristyjeff · December 2012

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

khristyjeff said:

Wow. That looks fantastic! Yours looks better than the restaurant's. Gotta have TFKh look at this. I told her about meat glue (from your previous thread) and she was simultaneously grossed out and intrigued. Thanks for experimenting and sharing with us.

Thanks. Nothing gross about meat glue. It's running through your veins and it's in every plant you consume also. If you have ever eaten deli meat, California rolls, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, or countless other foods you have eaten, you've had plenty of meat glue. It is 100% natural, tasteless, odorless, and fun to play with. Trust me, we all eat transglutaminase (meat glue) most every day of our lives.

We were asking ourselves this question just last month, "how do they make deli meat?" and then came your answer. Interesting. And thank you.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · December 2012

khristyjeff said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

khristyjeff said:

Wow. That looks fantastic! Yours looks better than the restaurant's. Gotta have TFKh look at this. I told her about meat glue (from your previous thread) and she was simultaneously grossed out and intrigued. Thanks for experimenting and sharing with us.

Thanks. Nothing gross about meat glue. It's running through your veins and it's in every plant you consume also. If you have ever eaten deli meat, California rolls, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, or countless other foods you have eaten, you've had plenty of meat glue. It is 100% natural, tasteless, odorless, and fun to play with. Trust me, we all eat transglutaminase (meat glue) most every day of our lives.

We were asking ourselves this question just last month, "how do they make deli meat?" and then came your answer. Interesting. And thank you.

Even the "good" deli meat like boars head etc are whole muscles (like turkey breast) put in a mold with meat glue and cooked. There are no 50lb turkeys running around with perfectly football shaped breasts! Not something I would cook with every day but fun every once in a while.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · December 2012

Thanks! Fun to do

rustypotts · December 2012

nolaegghead said:

Awesome. I remember you talking about duplicating this earlier. I see a lot of potential crazy gor-met sh*t with these techniques - like glue chicken to pork tenderloin so it forms a yin-yang when you slice it. Again - impressive. whoop! whoop! (siren blast!)

Nola......you could be talking about a tur-ducken filet! I gotta get some of that glue.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · December 2012

rustypotts said:

nolaegghead said:

Awesome. I remember you talking about duplicating this earlier. I see a lot of potential crazy gor-met sh*t with these techniques - like glue chicken to pork tenderloin so it forms a yin-yang when you slice it. Again - impressive. whoop! whoop! (siren blast!)

Nola......you could be talking about a tur-ducken filet! I gotta get some of that glue.

http://www.modernistpantry.com/moo-gloo-rm-transglutaminase.html

The Cen-Tex Smoker · December 2012

cazzy said:

Amazing job! What to try this when I grow up!

Check your inbox. I owe you a care package and h ave plenty of me

cazzy · December 2012

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

cazzy said:

Amazing job! What to try this when I grow up!

Check your inbox.

I owe you a care package and h ave plenty of me

Got it! Good looking out...very appreciated! :)

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Brine?Yep. Meat Glue?Yep. Sous Vide?Yep. Torch? Yep. Awesome? Oh @#!*% yes.TFJ killed it tonight

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